Summer & Tyler

Remember him? Hot right? & he has brains to go with those looks? Well, I get to come home to him everyday. Or these days he gets to come home to me with how many hours he's been working. Yet he still has time to make things that would otherwise cost a fortune, by finding odds and ends that are laying (lying?) around the house and making something really cool out of it. It's awesome.

{Picture compliments of sugardoodle.net-such a great aid for ideas!}

Tyler and I were called to be CTR 5 teachers (the 5 year olds) two Sundays ago and we taught our first class this past weekend. We are really excited to teach as a team and are looking forward to serving in our calling!

Or we were before last Sunday......haha. I did nursery for a little while before teaching the Sunbeams and CTR 8s for 2 years, so I'm well aware of how many different personalities and "special" attributes they have. We already had to take one child out of class to get a talking to, and in the middle of class we just stared at each other with our eyebrows raised, thinking simultaneously, "What the heck did we get ourselves into?"

Tyler says he is really going to read that one book he was telling me about that explains the proper way to discipline and get children to behave themselves. Phew....we were worn out and hopefully they were just testing us and giving us a hard time because we're newbies.

Of course we love the kids already--they are darn cute and I am shocked at how much they know about the gospel. What amazing parents they must have to have such smart and knowledgeable children at that age.

This should be fun-I'm looking forward to our next lesson...wish us luck!

...my funk. I'm not sure what's with me but for the past month I haven't been myself. I feel like I'm not living up to the standard that I usually hold myself to. I'm falling short with work, with church and visiting teaching, keeping in touch with friends and family,eating healthy and exercising, and most importantly being a good wife and keeping up on the household duties. I know I'm not perfect, but as a perfectionist, anything less is completely frustrating. More than frustrating-it's really pissing me off.

Some of you know that I suspect that I may have fibromyalgia...all my symptoms point to it and my mom has a severe case of it. It's not curable, it's a chronic disorder, and it's extremely limiting. To be honest, I'm hoping I have it because I don't know what other excuses I'll have to make up for all that I've been lacking. I have no energy, no motivation, and my brain is constantly fighting to work properly. Since coming home from our cruise, I'm in pain most days and would rather be home and lay in bed. I'm shocked because I actually had the best time with some girlfriends after my show on Sat. We danced and hung out and had a great time!

I wanted to apologize--especially to Angela, one of my best friends--I completely spaced her birthday--and I feel like the worst person on earth...that's so not me. At least I hope my friends don't view me as the type of person to forget.

I guess I do have a bunch on my plate--Mine and Jonny's house was up for auction last Thursday, and it was looking pretty dim. Thankfully, the investor who has an offer on our home right now was able to put a stop to it that morning and we are crossing our fingers that the sale will go through. Because of the excessive damage with the flooding and vandalism it's been impossible to sell...the buyers we've had needed a place to move into immediately. I'm embarrassed that I'm posting such personal information, but we still really need a buyer--(the investor is going to turn around and sell it and needs to get another buyer in place)

The price on our home was originally going to go for $650,000, and is now listed at $374,999. If anyone has a buyer that is interested, please let me know. I'm also the agent for the property. The repairs to finish the entire basement and main floor came back at $41,000, which in reality can be done for approximately half that as they estimated extremely high.

Some info on the home:

275 E Hansen Ridge Drive Lehi
4400 square ft
.37 acres
3 car extra high garage
5 bedrooms, formal office, and 4 1/2 baths
300 gallon fish tank in the basement
acid stained concrete floors in basement
9 ft ceilings in basement
solid wood beams throughout
travertine flooring in bathrooms
hand scraped walnut flooring on main floor
Master bath with jetted tub, 2 headed shower, and walk-in closet
large storage room with cold storage and epoxy flooring

This is an amazing home and it breaks my heart that we have to sell it for so little. I'll post some pics of it when I can. Please let me know if anyone has any interest and thanks for letting me vent!

XO,

Summer

Tyler has been to Grand Cayman with his family several times, and has loads of great things to say about it. They are lucky enough to tag along every few years to check up on his dad's clients and their furniture. Waxing and buffing mostly I think. At least that's what I've learned from Tyler-nice furniture needs a lot tlc to look its best.

Since I have never been before and all I know about the Caribbean is what I've seen on Pirates of the Caribbean, I had a different idea about what life on the island was all about. I thought it was going to be a little more tropical, more exotic, more Caribbean I guess..but this place felt more like a little town in Florida. Modern, somewhat up to date with convenience stores and restaurants, and amazing multi-million dollar homes on the water. Nothing what I had expected. I hope we have the opportunity to go with his fam in the future because 1 day is not long enough!


We had to ferry over from our ship a ways--a fun little ride.

{ 2nd ferry just like ours}

The ship looks so tiny from the dock. Each of those orange specks in the middle of the ship are boats in case of emergencies.
I'm not sure which I dislike more-overpriced excursions, or stressing out to save money on the excursions by waiting last minute and price shopping off the ship. It feels great after all the bartering goes down and we are on our way, but we missed out on activities we wanted to try because they weren't even available off the ship. Double bummer.

The exception was Grand Cayman-we really lucked out and saved a ton on our trip to Stingray City and a snokeling spot. (I'm not complaining but the snorkeling was terrible...no reef and very few fishies-still fun but nothing to write home about)
{Sorry...Rock & Olane--missed that one somehow}


{Had to take a pic of the Flagship store!}

We took a boat ride out to Stingray City....
{They say these are between 2 and 4 million dollar homes}


Stingray city is a sandbar completely surrounded by water. The stingrays are huge (the females are the larger ones) and are so docile. They have been without an incident (otherwise known as a death or injury) for years. They've got them so trained that they are completely unafraid of humans and know that this is the place when it comes to being fed.

After our excursion we ate at Hammerheads and we had our first conch fritters-ty excluded. Sooooooooooooo good. Their calamari was impressive too.




{Silly us}
{I love the humidity. Look what it does to my stick straight hair when it is added with a little bit of salt water! Did I mention my hair and skin hate Utah?}

{Dinner: French onion soup, sushi tasting, chocolate melting cake, cinnamon, date cake w/ rum ice cream, pork jerk tenderloin, pumpkin soup, polenta w/ puff pastry}

After another excellent dinner we saw an insane juggler-hands down the best I have ever seen, a comedian, and watched some great karaoke. I've always wished I could sing, but I even scare myself in the shower or car. So I refrain. Ty almost got up...almost--and I can't wait for the day that he does-he's got a great singing voice and he would've smoked some of those guys...too bad! He could have made it on the ship's show of the best of the best}

I finally was able to upload these pics (only two at a time...I hate blogging sometimes) after all the trouble blogger was giving me ...Ty's work party was incredible-from the invites to the candy party favors, every angle was covered.

These pictures are a testimony of why I want a new camera. Such a difference--every snap is like a piece of art!

{Our hostess, Hailey}
{Our host Eric about to be dunked}

I absolutely am in love with these two precious angels below...they belong to the parents above and I think they need to get them an agent! Aren't they just the sweetest things you've ever seen? {Adyson}
{Max}
The food was oh so good...
Burgers, hotdogs,
Corn on the cob,
personalized sodas,
fries,
pasta,
and lots of other yummy candy and icecream..

Old-fashioned candy totally reminds me of when I was little. After every ballet class we would get a strip of candy dots-I loved those things!
They also had facepainting for the kids and kid at heart, balloon making, and swimming...good times.

{Tyler specializes in Government loans, mostly VA, or loans for Veterans.

We had such a great time, and really enjoyed ourselves...although I may have overstuffed myself just a wee bit too much.

Hopefully we can look forward to many more of Hailey's fun parties.